ABSTRACT
International trade is critical to the profitability of some agricultural businesses. In real terms, trade in agricultural products has increased from $85 billion in 1995 to in excess of $144 billion in 2013.1 Throughout this period, the agricultural share of total U.S. exports has remained between 7 percent and 10 percent. The composition of these exports has shifted toward consumeroriented products. However, bulk commodities remain a very important part of U.S. agricultural exports; only soybeans saw the overall increase in exports during 1995 to 2013. Consumer-oriented products have an overall increase of about 20 percent. Dairy products led this with a 400 percent increase. China is currently the largest destination for agricultural exports from the United States. Table 23-1 lists the top fifteen U.S. agricultural exports by dollar value for calendar year 2014.
